Two way electrical female connectors which have a shorting clip housed in a plug connector body are known in the art. A typical two-way shorting clip is a bent wire which has a generally U-shaped body. The shorting clip is typically mounted in a slot above a pair of laterally spaced terminal cavities. The bent wire shorting clip includes two depending legs at the respective ends of the U-shaped body. These depending legs engage the sides of the respective female terminals which are disposed in the terminal cavities of the plug connector body.
A typical male electrical connector has a socket connector body which includes a converging slot at its mating end. The depending legs of the shorting clip are squeezed together and disengaged from the sides of the female terminals by the converging slot when the female connector is plugged into the male connector. The plug connector body of the female connector is also equipped with an external lock arm which secures the female connector to the mating male connector.
Another example of a two way electrical connector is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,203 granted to Margrave, et al Mar. 6, 1990. The Margrave shorting clip is U-shaped but made of sheet metal.
In both cases, the terminals are installed before the shorting clip because of the force required to move the shorting clip once it is installed. Moreover, special tools and processes are required to install the shorting clip into the connector body because the shorting clip must be compressed laterally in order to be inserted into the connector body. Furthermore, special tools are generally required to remove terminals from connectors having shorting clips.
While the two-way electrical connectors discussed above are suitable for many applications, it is desirous to eliminate the need for special tooling and processes to install the shorting clip into the connector body. It is also desirous to be able to install the shorting clip either before or after installing the terminals. It is also desirous to provide an electrical connector that does not require special tools and processes to remove the shorting clip.